The invention described herein, and named SOLAR CHEST was first conceived of, on Jan. 19th, 1981, by the inventor. This invention construction initiated on Jul. 20th, 1985 and was completed and functioned successfully on Aug. 4th, 1991, by the inventor.
As of the date of this patent application filing this present invention is the first device in existence of its type.
The present invention is built of commercially available components and parts found in the market place.
People chill or heat, transport and store temperature controlled substances in a variety of ways using several separate devices. This present invention chills, heats, transports and stores temperature controlled substances using one lightweight, portable completely self-contained, hand-held device powered completely by solar energy. These chests are used for heating, cooling, storage and transporting any substance which requires temperature tempering or temperature controlled environments with variable outdoor or chest exterior ambient conditions.
Typically modern electric portable picnic coolers, beer chests for picnic goofs, campers, fishermen and boaters are made with built in small, miniature, cooling, heating systems and are commercially available in the market place.
Theses devices all use an external power supply either automobile 12 volt direct current or house hold 120 volt alternating current converted to 12 volt direct current which by the use of a cable attached to a standard automobile cigarette lighter and the chest or a large, heavy alternating current to direct current converter that plugs into a standard receptacle and then into chest.
The present invention has come to fruition only as recently as 1990 due to major, significant advances in technology regarding the efficiencies and performance of the thermoelectric cooling heating systems and in relation to the mechanical chemical cooling heating systems, a newly developed linear current booster.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,028 discloses a cooling heating system, which must rely on an external power supply in order to operate. This device requires the use of external heavy batteries which prohibit hand-held use and require external cables or wires in order to operate.
This device also depicts a remote solar energy photovoltaic array which is too large for the cooling application. This array as disclosed generates 120 watts of energy. The present invention requires only 72 watts of energy resulting in a smaller array allowing for practical transport and optimum unfolded size. This device as depicted has three separate components which must be assembled when operation of the system is desired.
The array as disclosed must be set up by the user along with cable hookups.
The array as depicted cannot be folded up for storage or transportation completely due to the piano hinges not being offset creating a bulky, awkward array too large to be transported easily by an average adult or child.
The present invention is an Improvement because it does not rely on any external power supply to operate or function and in fact is completely self-contained and can operate soley from sunlight.
This eliminates the need for any array set up or cable or wire hookup by the user. Also the present invention is Improved because it is much lighter in weight and is completely unitized.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,658 discloses controls systems for the operation of the thermoelectric cooling heating system yet has no specific controls required for solar energy utilization. The present invention is an Improvement because It has specific unique solar energy control systems exclusively required for solar energy utilization. Also an external cable and power supply is required for operating the system as disclosed, where as the present invention is an improvement because it does not need any external cables or power supplies but can operate with sunlight only. The present invention can operate independent of any cable or external power supply.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,019 discloses a device which also requires the use of heavy batteries and external cables which prohibits the device from being self-contained, lightweight, hand-held and portable. The area of photovoltaic array, as disclosed, is not sufficient to directly power a cooling heating system but can only be used to charge batteries or supply control voltages. The present invention is improved due to the fact that no external cables batteries or power supplies are required for operation and the solar energy collector array is sized to match the electrical requirements of the cooling, heating chest based on the chest's insulating characteristics and hand-held capability of the portability of the array when folded in the closed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,546 discloses a device that has been available in the market place for about three years. This device called a linear current booster, allows the solar energy photovoltaic collector and a small electric driven freon compressor, to operate without the use of heavy batteries.
This refrigeration, heat pump system permits the freezing or boiling of fluids as well as the cooling or heating of the chest's contents. This device allows the present invention to overcome the excessive current draw which is required when the compressor first starts, which is normally available from batteries. The starting of the compressor, without the need of batteries greatly reduces the chest's weight.